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--- garden:about:plants:fruit:strawberries [2020/09/26 18:27] – davidbac
+++ garden:about:plants:fruit:strawberries [2020/11/07 22:07] (current) – [Strawberries] davidbac
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+===== Strawberries =====
+Growing strawberries is different from just about anything else we grow. Leeks and garlic are similar in that they over-winter. But I'm still learning how to cultivate strawberries for good production.
+At least I can spend time with the strawberries when they need it, in the fall when other cultivation needs are less.
+<note important>I do not plant strawberries where tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, or potatoes have been grown to avoid infecting them with verticillium wilt. </note>
+==== Productive life of a plant ====
+{{ :garden:about:plants:fruit:strawberries:img_3800.jpg?200|}}A strawberry produces for about 2, maybe 3 years. After than production and fruit quality deteriorate.
+So, the initial transplanting of strawberry crowns must wait a year before effective production. This means clipping the flowers of the very first transplants.
+After the first season the first plants send out runners (many!) that root nearby. I transplant these runner plants to make the initial crop for the following season, which is their first and so they are treated like a new crop.
+While the second planting grows, the initial plants are in full productivity - for two, maybe three, years.
+To keep this going I plant a third bed from the runners of the previous crops.
+As I repeat the cloning process there will be a slow increase in production, and there are at least two plots at optimum production.
+<note tip>The photo at the right shows the second generation bed at the top with transplanted runners from the original bed below.</note>
+In the fourth year, the very first plot is removed and the plants composted to make way for a new generation of plants from runners from the second and third plots.
+<note tip>It is a trick to plan out a garden with rotations of vegetable crops and new locations for strawberries!</note>
+==== June bearing ====
+I grow only June bearing strawberry plants that are grown originally in the Pacific Northwest, Shuksan and Rainier. There are varieties that are called everbearing, but this means there is a second crop in late summer. I avoid everbearing for several reasons: they aren't as tasty as June bearing, especially in the summer, and I prefer to have only one push in June to manage the strawberries - the big vegetable harvests occur in later summer.